The Maryland man who became the first person to receive a heart transplant from a pig has died, two months after the groundbreaking experiment, the Associated Press reports.
David Bennett, 57, died Tuesday at the University of Maryland Medical Center, the hospital said in a statement. Doctors didn’t give an exact cause of death, saying only that his condition had begun deteriorating several days earlier.
Bennett had undergone the seven-hour operation in January as a final attempt to save his life. He was ineligible for a human heart transplant, bedridden and on life support.
“I know it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s my last choice,” he said in a statement issued a day before the operation, according to the New York Times.
Though xenotransplantation have mostly failed in the past because patients’ bodies rejected the animal organ, this time, Bennett’s surgeons used a heart from a genetically modified pig. The animal was modified to remove pig genes that trigger the hyper-fast rejection and add human genes to help the body accept the organ.
Bennett was able to live for another another two months.
“We are devastated by the loss of Mr. Bennett. He proved to be a brave and noble patient who fought all the way to the end,” Dr. Bartley P. Griffith the surgeon who performed the transplant said.
“As with any first-in-the-world transplant surgery, this one led to valuable insights that will hopefully inform transplant surgeons to improve outcomes and potentially provide lifesaving benefits to future patients,” Dr. Griffith added.
Bennett’s son thanked the hospital for performing the procedure.
“We are grateful for every innovative moment, every crazy dream, every sleepless night that went into this historic effort,” David Bennett Jr. said in a statement. “We hope this story can be the beginning of hope and not the end.”